Eurolanche

Avs beat Stars

Matt Nieto scored his first three goals of the season to help the Colorado Avalanche defeat the Dallas Stars 5-3 at Pepsi Center on Tuesday.

The Avalanche (5-4-0) ended a three-game losing streak. The Stars (5-4-0) had won four consecutive games.

Nieto completed his first NHL hat trick with an empty-net goal with 3.1 seconds remaining.

The Stars closed to 4-3 at 10:12 of the third period when John Klingberg scored his third goal of the season. He beat goalie Semyon Varlamov (34 saves) with a shot from the high slot.

Defenseman Mark Barberio scored the third Avalanche goal of the second period, his first of the season, with 9.8 seconds left for a 4-2 lead.

Nieto's second of the game put Colorado ahead 2-1 at 2:14 of the period, but Dallas tied it 2-2 at 2:44 on Brett Ritchie's first of the season.

Gabriel Landeskog gave the Avalanche a 3-2 lead at 4:04 when he shot inside the right post for his second goal of the season, after which Stars goalie Ben Bishop (14 saves) was replaced by Kari Lehtonen (14 saves).

Jamie Benn gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 8:03 of the first period when his shot from the left circle hit Colorado defenseman Anton Lindholm's skate and caromed past Varlamov.

The Avalanche tied it 1-1 on Nieto's first goal at 13:45. Landeskog took a shot that was deflected into the slot and Nieto put it past Bishop.

The Avalanche killed Alex Kerfoot's double-minor for high-sticking Tyler Pitlick at 15:17, limiting the Stars to two shots.

-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --